Wednesday, January 26, 2011

About the Book (from Amazon.com): "Gabriella has never spent a summer in Italy like this one.Remaining means giving up all she’s known and loved…and leaving means forfeiting what she’s come to know…and love itself.

Most American teenagers want a vacation in Italy, but the Bentarrini sisters have spent every summer of their lives with their parents, famed Etruscan scholars, among the romantic hills. Stuck among the rubble of medieval castles in rural Tuscany on yet another hot, dusty archaeological site, Gabi and Lia are bored out of their minds… until Gabi places her hand atop a handprint in an ancient tomb and finds herself in fourteenth-century Italy. And worse yet, in the middle of a fierce battle between knights of two opposing forces.

And thus does she come to be rescued by the knight-prince Marcello Falassi, who takes her back to his father’s castle—a castle Gabi has seen in ruins in another life. Suddenly Gabi’s summer in Italy is much, much more interesting. But what do you do when your knight in shining armor lives, literally, in a different world?"

I have a thing for time travel, so I was instantly intrigued by this one. The cover is interesting, but I saw the book for the second book (out in July) and it is really, really pretty. Is it bad I might read this only so I can read the second book? Hehe.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Sorry I've been absent last week. I still have more 2010 wrap up posts to do, and it's my goal to publish all of them before the end of January, I hope.

Unfortunately I find myself in a bit of a book slump lately. It's been steadily increasing over the last few weeks. And it's affecting my blogging. I don't really want to read so I'm not in the mood to blog much either. Meh.

The problem is that I have a book that I got to review for a local newspaper, so I absolutely have to turn in a review. And although I'm not hating this book, I'm far from loving it. It's over 400 pages and I am stuck at about page 100. I'm not invested in the story or the characters, I just don't care about either of them. But since I have to write a review for it, I need to at least get a little farther before I abandon it.

Anyone have good ideas to get out of a book slump? I've tried reading a different book, but I just end up tearing through that book since I'm enjoying it so much more and then when I'm done with it I'm back at point A.

Well, at least with less reading I've had more time to work on bookmark orders. Here's one of my latest finished. I think it turned out pretty good, don't you think? (Even if my camera took a not-so-good picture.)

About the Book (from Amazon.com): "Twelve-year-old Lilia is not a very good servant. In fact, she's terrible! She daydreams, she breaks dishes, and her cooking is awful. Still, she hardly deserves to be sold off to the mean-spirited miller and his family. Refusing to accept that dreadful fate, she decides to flee. With her best friend, Kai, and his sister, Karina, beside her, Lilia heads north to find the family she's never known. But danger awaits. . . .

As their quest leads the threesome through the mysterious and sinister Bitra Forest, they suddenly realize they are lost in the elves' domain. To Lilia's horror, Kai falls under an enchantment cast by the Elf King's beautiful daughter. The only way for Lilia to break the spell and save Kai is to find a jewel of ancient power that lies somewhere in the North Kingdoms. Yet the jewel will not be easy to find. The castle where it is hidden has been overrun with princess hopefuls trying to pass a magical test that will determine the prince's new bride. Lilia has only a few days to search every inch of the castle and find the jewel—or Kai will be lost to her forever."

Yes, another fairy tale retelling. But you probably guessed that already from the title. This one sounds like a mash up of The Princess and the Pea and The Snow Queen, but with a new twist of both. I am enjoying Zahler's other fairy tale book, The Thirteenth Princess, so far so I have high hopes for this one.

Plus, look at that cover (click on it to see it larger)! If you read by Best Covers of 2010 post the other day, Zahler's The Thirteenth Princess made it on to that list. And this cover is just as pretty. I love the artist HarperCollins has doing her artwork...

A True Princess will be released on February 3rd, 2011 (almost there!) and is currently available for pre-order:

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

So after a couple days' delay (things are still crazy around here) I'm back with another top 10 from 2010. Today we're looking at the best book covers from 2010. Now, I haven't read all of these, but the covers to these books are super cool anyway.Those of you who are longtime readers are familiar with how much I gush about covers during my Waiting on Wednesday posts. So I guess I'm somewhat of a cover enthusiast. I love to gush about good covers, and rant about bad ones.

So let me tell you, this was hard. I mean, really, really, really hard for me to choose only 10. I got it narrowed down to 20 fairly easily, and 15 eventually, but narrowing it down to only 10 was killer. But after looking at the 10 I finally chose, I saw that they narrowed down into semi-categories. And I thought it would be fun to present them that way. Perhaps in a few days I'll post the runner ups, because there were a lot of great book covers last year.

So here are my Top 10 Covers of 2010. I made sure I uploaded large files, so all of these can be clicked on and be viewed large size in all their splendid glory.

Enjoy!

Category 1: Period Dresses

Oh, the dresses. I can't help it, I think my obsession with these types of covers comes from living two semesters with a roommate who was majoring in fashion design with a theatrical costume emphasis. And it's probably party of my inner girly-girl escaping as well.

Which reminds me, I still need to post the answers for those. One more thing on the to-do list...

Category 2: Pretty Colors

I can't help it. I love color. And the colors in these covers are awesome. I love how the blue of Forgive My Fins instantly makes me think of mermaids (which the book is about, obviously). Either that or a girl who's frostbitten, but there you go.

I really like the effect of Jekel Loves Hyde as well. The sickly green glow of that boiling beaker nicely contrasts with the purple of Jill's shirt. This is one of the books on this list that I have read, and I think this cover perfectly captures the tone of the book.

And last we come to that beautiful shade of green on the Matched cover. I've heard this one is even more pretty in person because it has a pearly sheen to it. I haven't seen it in real life yet (though I do have a copy on it's way in the mail to me, yay!) but even the virtual version is pretty. I like the imagery too, the idea of being trapped in a bubble, which sounds like it really accurately reflects the book. And it's a pretty dress. (I know, I know, I'm gushing about dresses again...)

Category 3: What's with the cat eyes?

Okay, so this might be a stretch to lump these two together. But still, it works! There's something about changing the shape of the pupils in both of these covers that give both of them a subtle hint of the supernatural (without them being scary). Needless to say, Mistwood draws me in right away with the misty woods and castle. And I really like the font used for the title too. And as much as I like this cover, the sequel's is even prettier. Really looking forward to that one too.

Firelight could also go in the pretty colors category. I love the warm feel of the reds in this cover. The moment I saw this cover I knew I had to have the book. It's sitting in my To Be Read pile right now, and I hope it lives up to the expectation I've gotten from the cover. In addition to the subtle change of the eye, I love how you can just barely see the sheen of scales around her eye. Very cool. Or hot... oh, you know what I mean!

Category 4: Ally Carter!

Yeah, I know this is kind of an odd category. But in grouping my covers I noticed I had two left, and both of them were for Ally Carter books. I guess she had a good year for covers in 2010.

First is the new Gallagher Girl cover, Only the Good Spy Young. Can I just say that I've loved these covers for the whole series, but this one by far has to be my favorite. The plaid theme is super cool on the spine, and the title treatments are always fun. But this one is PINK! My favorite color. So of course, no future GG books will ever be as much favorite as this one is.

And last by certainly not least, is Heist Society. I already wanted to read this book as soon as read the description. But when I saw the cover, I knew I had to have it NOW. I love the juxtaposition of Kat's sunglasses and the painting reflected in them. I've seen another cover for this book (I think it's the UK or Australian cover, maybe?) where Kat (who's blond instead of brunette) is in front of a painting in a ski cap with a bunch of red lasers around her. And while that might say "thief" more than this cover does, I love this cover so much more. The other version just doesn't feel like Kat to me. She has so much pizazz, and I think this cover shows that way better.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Book trailers have come a long way. The first time I saw a book trailer was in 2007 I think, and it wasn't much more than a bunch of pictures and some text. And while there's nothing wrong with that kind of trailer, they've also gotten lots more sophisticated over the last 3 years.

So my first 2010 wrap up is sharing with you (in no particular order) my top 10 book trailers of 2010. I haven't read all of these (actually I haven't read most of them) but they sure do make me want to read them all right away!

So which trailers were your favorite this year? Any you really liked that I missed?

Thursday, January 13, 2011

So I know I promised everyone some new posts several days ago. My carpal tunnel flare up finally subsided Tuesday, and I had most of Wednesday off from work so I could go to the doctor. It was my plan to use the rest of the time between when I had to go back to work and when my appointment was over to catch up a bit.

Unfortunately, I not only had to get a (painful) shot, I had 9 vials of blood taken for blood tests. This meant my arm was pretty much as limp as a noodle, and I could hardly type. Le sigh.

But, I'm feeling much better today! I want to put the first post up tonight or tomorrow morning and complete the four 2010 wrap up posts I have planning in the following days. I seemed to have misplaced my list, so I'm having to redo everything which will take a little longer, but will still hopefully be up soon.

After that it still might be a bit quiet for a little bit, since I'm working on a lot of behind the scenes stuff. New content for the New Year and all that, but you'll have to wait and see what it is. ;) Anyway, bottom line, new post coming either later today or tomorrow morning, so come back to check it out!

Wednesday, January 05, 2011

I know I promised a series of "best of 2010" posts last week. You may have noticed they aren't up yet.

Unfortunately, I had a really bad flare up in my carpal tunnel show up on New Year's Eve. It's slowed down my computer activities a lot, and I've had to save what little typing I can do before my fingers go numb for work stuff (bleh).

Anyway, it seems to be clearing up a little bit, so hopefully by Friday my hands will be back to (nearly) normal typing activities.

Sunday, January 02, 2011

One staple of the New Years at my house is cleaning. I've been told I need to clean some of the stuff out of my bookshelves, so I'm updating my Books for Sale post. There's several new titles here, as well as some leftovers from the last list.

A good chunk of these will be donated to the thrift store if no one claims them, so if you see something you want, let me know right away so I can save it for you. Also, if you have something on my wish list (left sidebar) I might be willing to trade for the below titles as well. Never hurts to ask.

If you see something on this list you'd be interested in buying, send me an email (shadyglade(AT)mail(DOT)com) and let me know. Prices are $1.99 for any paperback, and $2.99 for hardbacks + the cost of postage.

Shipping will be done via Media Mail for US addresses, since it's much cheaper. Shipping is determined by the weight of the books. If you'd like to know beforehand how heavy something is that you're interested in, let me know and I'll weigh it for you. Shipping costs also include delivery confirmation for the US, so you can track the package while en route.

I prefer PayPal as a method of payment, which requires a credit card. Anyone who can't do PayPal, send me an email (shadyglade(AT)mail(DOT)com) and we'll work something out.

Almost all of these are either new or like new condition. I take very good care of my books. I will confirm condition of every book before shipment, so you'll know exactly what you're getting before you pay for anything.

Subscribe Now

Follow by Email

Subscribe To

About the Shady Glade

Here is where you will find all things book related. Book reviews, interviews, contests, and anything else I feel like throwing in. If you have any suggestions, or would like to donate in any way, please feel free to leave me a comment, or email me at shadyglade (AT) mail.com

About Me

I'm a young adult California girl living in a Mississippi world (well, since June 2014 anyway). I went to college in Idaho, spent two summers in Florida, and that pretty much sums up my life so far. I have one brother, one furbaby, and I blog about reading and cross stitch. My other interests include jigsaw puzzles, musical theater, and DISNEY! (lots and lots of Disney)

Goodreads 2015 Reading Challenge

Donate

Amazon links found here are affliate links. If you click over to make a purchase at Amazon.com using these links, a very small percentage of your purchase will go to help cover the costs associated with running The Shady Glade. Your purchases help cover postage to send out prizes, among other various costs.

If you would like to donate in other ways, please contact me at shadyglade(AT)mail(DOT) com.